Chico State women's golf team finishes third at InterWest Wildcat Invitational

CHICO >> The No. 14-ranked Chico State women's golf team sputtered to a third-place finish Tuesday at the InterWest Wildcat Invitational at Canyon Oaks Country Club.

The Wildcats were the defending champions of their home event and came into the contest on a hot streak, ready to face tough competition. The event featured four teams ranked in the top 40 by Golfstat, including No. 25 Sonoma State, No. 29 Cal State Monterey Bay, No. 35 Cal State East Bay and No. 38 Academy of Art.

After a wet and wild first round Monday, the Wildcats were sitting in second place with a combined score of 325, trailing Academy of Art by five strokes. Sonoma State was just one stroke behind Chico State with a score of 326.

Sarah McComish led the Wildcats on day one with a 5-over-par 77 and Dani O'Keefe finished the first round with a 9-over 81. But on day two, while the conditions were better and brighter, the scores were not.

Sonoma State had a tremendous second-round 319, which propelled the Seawolves to a seven-stroke first-place finish with a total of 645. Academy of Art finished second with a second-round 332 and an overall score of 652. Chico State was able to muster a score of 330 Tuesday and a total score of 655, which secured third place.

"Strategy always changes from day to day because conditions are always different," said Chico State head coach Kathy Dais. "That's the beauty of the game. The strategy today was to play your low shots into the wind, don't over-swing and try to make putts. Our course is so hard; it's one of the hardest courses that we play all year."

O'Keefe led the charge Tuesday for the Wildcats with a second round 5-over 77 and finished tied for third with a 158. McComish tied for fifth with a second-round 82 and a total score of 159. Spencer Downey tied for 18th with a 171 and Abbey McGrew finished 20th with a 172.

"Today the course wasn't quite as wet and soggy so the ball was rolling a little better from tee to fairway," Downey said. "The greens are really tricky, the pin placements were tougher and the wind as it was picking up it made things lot more difficult. You had to putt well. If you putted well, you scored well."

Heather Fegley, who was competing as an individual, finished in 11th place with a score of 165, after two consecutive scores of 82. Bianca Armanini, whose first-round 83 counted for the Wildcats on day one, was forced to withdraw due to health reasons. This forced the Wildcats to take all four of their team scores, instead of the usual best four scores from the group of five. Sydney Zink, who was also competing as an individual, finished the tournament in 25th with a score of 181.

"We know this course better than any other team and I think that makes the loss worse," Downey added. "We're trying to defend our title but we couldn't deliver and we feel bad about it, but that gives us more of a drive to do well in Monterey."